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Thai PM calls for peaceful solution, says will not resign

Updated
Mon 2 Dec 2013, 10:22 PM AEDT

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An anti-government protester runs as police fire tear gas shells outside the Government house during a demonstration in Bangkok

AFP: Indranil Mukherjee

The Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says she will "open every door" to find a peaceful solution to a political crisis gripping Bangkok, amid clashes between security forces and demonstrators bent on toppling her government.

She refused protester demands to resign and suspend the country's democratic system.

Police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon against rock-throwing demonstrators, as they intensified their defence of key government buildings.

It follows a violent weekend which left several dead and over a hundred wounded in Bangkok.

Some schools and universities in the capital were closed for safety reasons, authorities said, after unrest on Sunday rippled around the key government buildings in the capital.

The protests, aimed at unseating the elected government and replacing it with a "people's council", are the latest outbreak of civil strife to rock the kingdom since royalist generals ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother, seven years ago.

The billionaire tycoon-turned-premier is hated by the elites, Bangkok's middle class and southerners, who have massed in the capital in recent days vowing to rid the country of his influence.

He is adored by many outside Bangkok, particularly in his stronghold in the nation's north, and Ms Yingluck's party has a solid parliamentary majority.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said late Sunday that he had met Ms Yingluck in secret in the presence of army, navy and air force commanders, but insisted the talks were simply a means to issue his demand for the government to hand power "to the people".

"There will be no bargaining and it must be finished in two days," he said.

"I told Yingluck that if police put down their weapons, we will welcome them as they are also Thai.

"I told Yingluck that this will be our only meeting and we will not meet again until the people win."

Ms Yingluck says she would "open every door" to pursue talks with protesters who are trying to topple her government, but Suthep Thaugsuban's call to shift power from the elected premier to the people "does not exist under constitutional law".

"Anything I can do to make people happy, I am willing to do... but as prime minister, what I can do must be under the constitution," she added.

Ms Yingluck says the military is neutral in the current political crisis.

"The military has positioned itself as neutral and it wants to see a peaceful way out," she said, adding that police would not use force against the protesters in the streets of Bangkok.

Thailand has seen 18 actual or attempted coups since 1932, most recently with Thaksin's overthrow in 2006, but the military has appeared reluctant to intervene in the current standoff.

The authorities have deployed more than 2,700 troops to reinforce security in Bangkok, the first time a significant number of soldiers has been mobilised to cope with the recent unrest.

The month-long street rallies are the biggest since mass pro-Thaksin protests in Bangkok three years ago that left dozens dead and ended in a bloody military crackdown.

Police said an estimated 70,000 people joined the opposition demonstration on Sunday.

While the protesters' numbers have fallen since an estimated 180,000 people joined an opposition rally on November 24, they have besieged high-profile targets including ministries in what some observers believe is an attempt to provoke a military coup.

Police on Sunday repeatedly fired tear gas and water cannon as a hard core of protesters tried for hours to breach barricades and cut barbed wire protecting Government House, which was guarded by security forces including unarmed soldiers.

Protest leader Mr Suthep urged civil servants nationwide to go on strike on Monday although it was unclear how many would heed his call, which was rejected by the government.

Who is Suthep Thaugsuban?

Thailand specialist, Nicholas Farrelly says protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban is a veteran politician with a strong following in southern Thailand.

He said the demonstrators would not be satisfied with new elections, raising fears of a deepening crisis that could scare off foreign tourists and international investment in one of South East Asia's most vibrant economies.

In a televised press conference, deputy prime minister Pracha Promnog insisted the government was in control.

He accused Suthep of seeking "to overthrow the executive branch, which is treason and punishable by death".

The weekend's violence broke out Saturday near a suburban stadium where tens of thousands of pro-government "Red Shirts" had gathered in support of Ms Yingluck.

Several were killed and dozens wounded, according to Bangkok's Erawan emergency centre.

They were the first deaths since the mostly peaceful demonstrations began a month ago, and both sides blamed each other for attacking their supporters.

The protests were triggered by an amnesty bill, since abandoned by the ruling party, which opponents feared would have allowed Thaksin to return to the country.